I have no issues with patients growing their own medicinal marijuana.
However, strict regulations need to be implemented before they're allowed to continue doing so, or patients could lose the privilege of growing their own cannabis and face criminal charges if things get out of hand.
If these regulations were implemented, I would have no issues with patients growing marijuana in their homes.
Patients
1) Patients must have a hand-signed document from their family doctor and any other health-care provider they're seeing, stating why they need to be on medicinal cannabis.
A prescription from at least one practitioner must also be obtained. A stamped signatured document or photocopy of a document will not be considered legal. This is to allow that person and that person alone to grow medicinal cannabis.
2) Patients must send photocopies of all hand-signed documents from their health-care providers to the government so it can be documented that they are, indeed, cannabis patients, and so that the governement can monitor usage.
3) Patients must provide legal photo ID and secondary ID along with the signed document(s) while buying the plants to grow medicinal cannabis.
This is to prevent someone else from taking their letters and buying plants for them or buying plants illegally with the signed documents.
4) Patients should expect a visit from a government official every six months to monitor the amount of plants they can legally have growing in their homes and/or greenhouses. They will also inspect the amount of dried cannabis to ensure it is roughly the amount legalized by the government.
Patients are to smoke/use exactly the required amount as stated by their health-care providers each day and no more.
This is to keep growers as patients and not illegal traffickers.
5) Patients are to keep all cannabis, plants and dried product locked with a combination lock that only they know the combination to. They are to memorize the combination and are not to leave the combination to the lock anywhere. This is to prevent anyone from stealing cannabis.
6) Patients are not allowed to give/sell/distribute the cannabis they grow to anyone. This cannabis is for them and them alone.
If they are caught doing so, and it will be evident by government visit, they will have all plants and dried cannabis removed from their homes, be banned from growing any more, and charged with trafficking and distributing illegal marijuana.
Sellers
1) Sellers who provide patients with plants to grow their own medicinal cannabis must read the letters that the patient provides and ensure the signatures are genuine every time the patient comes in to purchase plants to grow. They then must match the full legal name of the patient on the document(s) with the name on the photo and secondary IDs. This will prevent someone coming in with false documentations or photocopies.
2) Sellers must call the practitioners' offices to confirm the letters are genuine, that the patient is who he/she says they are and they did indeed give them the prescription to use marijuana medicinally.
Sellers may only operate during the same business hours that medical professionals are working so they can call and confirm. This is to prevent forgery.
3) Sellers may only sell patients a set amount at any one time, as stated by the government. Sellers are also only allowed to sell them a set amount of plants every year as determined by the government. They may not exceed selling that amount to any individual.
4) Sellers who provide plants for patients to grow their own marijuana must be visited by a government official from time to time to ensure they are following legal regulations.
Sellers must also provide the government with a monthly inventory list as well as a list of patient names and how many plants sold to each patient.
If sellers do not follow regulations or provide the necessary lists to government officials, they could face criminal charges for trafficking.
G. Fader,
Kelowna